


Second Chance

by Spikedluv



Series: Trope Bingo Challenge [3]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, Deal with a Devil, Episode Tag, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 18:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6436114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spikedluv/pseuds/Spikedluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick’s hand went reflexively to the bandage covering his chest as he remembered the surprise as the bullet tore into his chest.  He’d been lucky that Connor had found him so quickly, or he might not be here, might not have this second chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Important Butterflies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6435859) by [Tarlan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan). 



> Kind of an ep tag, except it goes AU before the ep ends. Sort of a fix-it. (For an explanation of this before you read, see my notes at the end.)
> 
> Written for round six of Trope Bingo on DW for the _deal with the devil_ square. I took the trope in a different direction than I originally intended.
> 
> Also written for my Trope Bingo Challenge-Challenge with Tarlan, in which we both wrote the same prompt for the same fandom to see how we each approached it. There was a word and time limit, but the word limit kind of went out the window for both of us. *g*
> 
> Written: April 2, 2016

Nick stood in the doorway watching Stephen as he folded a t-shirt and set it on the pile with the others. Seeing him standing there at the foot of the bed doing something so mundane brought to mind the past few months – the distance that had grown between them culminating in Stephen’s stupidly heroic death – and how this moment was very nearly lost to him forever.

Nick’s hand went reflexively to the bandage covering his chest as he remembered the surprise as the bullet tore into his chest. He’d been lucky that Connor had found him so quickly, or he might not be here, might not have this second chance.

~*~*~*~

It took Nick longer than he’d have liked to get from the room where he’d been stashed for his recovery to the temporary space they’d been assigned until the ARC was up and running again. He cursed his slow pace and the cane he was forced to use until he regained his full strength.

Connor knew he was coming long before Nick reached his work area. The glare Nick sent his way kept Connor in his seat until Nick reached him, though he’d pulled over a chair so that Nick could sit down. Abby was not as restrained by Nick’s glare. She met him halfway with a worried frown. “Are you supposed to be out of your room?” Abby said, concern coloring her voice.

“They told me to walk,” Nick said.

“I don’t think they meant quite this far,” Abby said wryly. “What’s Lester going to say when he sees you down here?”

“Lester can bloody well . . . .” Nick cut himself off as he concentrated on lowering himself into the chair Connor held so it wouldn’t roll out from under him, adding insult to injury.

“Please, do finish your statement,” Lester said from behind Nick.

Connor and Abby both looked guilty, though Nick was the one Lester was speaking to. “I just wanted to know how things were going,” he said.

“I’m sure Miss Maitland and Mr. Temple have kept you informed on their twice daily visits to your room. Even though they’ve been instructed not to bother you with our ongoing search because you need to rest.”

Connor gave intent concentration to the Artifact he’d been studying while Abby examined her nails.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nick said.

“Harrumph,” Lester said. “Well, since you’re here you might as well make yourself useful. Show him the map.”

Lester directed the last to Connor, and a moment later a map of the (mostly unconfirmed) sightings of Helen filled a large screen. ARC personnel were checking every single one, no matter how unlikely, but so far they’d had no luck finding her. Nick immediately dismissed the clusters of sightings near towns and city centers and looked at the two outliers.

“That’s where she’ll be,” Nick said.

“Logic would dictate that she’ll be found where more people have spotted her,” Lester said.

“Logic would be wrong. Helen needs privacy to do what she’s doing. A remote location is more likely,” Nick said. “Have you checked for empty buildings or abandoned property in those areas?”

“As a matter of fact, we have,” Lester said. “Connor.”

The screen changed to a close-up of the two remote areas side-by-side, little red dots marking possible locations Helen could be hiding out.

“What about power?” Abby said. When they all looked at her, she explained, “The cloning equipment alone had to have drawn a lot of electric.”

“Good thought,” Nick said.

Connor looked to Lester, who gave a short nod. Connor’s fingers flew across the keyboard. Nick glanced at the map, frowning.

“What’s wrong?” Abby said.

“There’s something,” Nick said, “just at the edge of my brain, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

Connor’s search yielded zero results – none of the supposedly empty buildings and abandoned properties were drawing electric. “What else . . . ?” he began.

“Anomalies!” Nick said, the thought finally gelling. “Have there been any anomalies in these areas?”

A quick search of ARC records showed that there had been, though not recently.

“It would explain why Helen had been spotted in those areas,” Nick said. Even if she was no longer there.

Connor made a strangled sound, drawing all of their attention to him.

“What is it, Connor?” Nick said.

“The anomaly we responded to this week. It was in the Forest of Dean.”

“That’s got to be it!” Nick said.

“Helen hasn’t been spotted in that area,” Lester pointed out.

“She wouldn’t be, she’d make sure of that,” Nick said.

Lester sent teams to check out the possibilities in the other two areas just in case, but Nick knew they wouldn’t find her. Helen was in the Forest of Dean; she wouldn’t be able to resist the symmetry of it.

“Found her!” Connor said, throwing his arms up in triumph.

“I’ve got a team ready to go,” Lester said.

“I’m going, as well,” Nick said, pushing to his feet.

“Cutter,” Abby said.

“You can barely walk,” Lester said. “Besides, the public thinks you’re dead, and we want to keep it that way until we find your wife.”

“It would be awkward if I had to hail a cab, then,” Nick said.

While Connor had been doing his thing with the computer, Nick had been thinking about what they might find there. _Who_ they might find.

_Tell me you didn’t do this to Stephen._

Helen had denied it, but Helen was full of lies if it suited her purpose.

Lester was going on about locking Nick in his room, and Abby was concerned about his recovery, but Nick ignored them.

“Stephen might be there,” Nick said. He hadn’t spoken loudly, but everyone’s protestations died.

“Stephen Hart is dead,” Lester reminded them.

“No,” Abby said, shaking her head. “She wouldn’t.”

“Of course she would,” Connor said bitterly.

“If she did,” Lester said, catching on. “It won’t be Stephen.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nick said.

~*~

Nick stood inside the old barn looking at empty horse stalls and broken pitchforks. This level retained the appearance of abandonment, but below ground was a different matter entirely. Aside from Captain Becker, who had been assigned to protective detail, everyone else was either on guard duty outside or downstairs in the lab they’d found. Nick could hear Connor’s voice over comms, exclaiming excitedly at each new discovery.

Nick was both relieved and disappointed to have his suspicion proven false. Nick blamed Helen – and Stephen’s own sense of honor – for Stephen’s death, but he couldn’t deny that he’d played a large part. In a fit of righteous anger, of betrayal, he’d cut Stephen loose, left him alone and vulnerable to Helen’s manipulations. And now Stephen was gone and Nick would never get the explanation he desired, yet hadn’t let Stephen give him. More importantly, he’d never be able to make his own apologies.

But Helen was still out there, and Nick could at least get some justice for Stephen by helping to find her. And if the idea of Stephen’s clone being out there somewhere haunted him, well, that was something he’d have to deal with.

Suddenly a piece of wall slid aside, revealing an opening where no doorway had appeared before. Stephen and Nick both looked at each other in surprise.

Nick found his voice first. “Stephen!”

“What are you doing here?” Stephen said.

“We were looking for you, actually.”

“Why? Helen said you believed I was dead.” With the implication being that he should leave it that way.

“We were afraid that Helen had done something to you,” Nick said, ignoring Captain Becker’s order to stay back.

Stephen tilted his head as he studied Nick. He licked his lip before he spoke. “You came for me?”

“I did,” Nick said. “Stephen, h-how did you get here? When I saw you last . . .” Nick’s voice broke and his eyes burned.

Stephen nodded. “I remember locking the door, I remember you . . . and then I woke up here.”

Nick didn’t stop himself from stepping forward and taking one of Stephen’s hands. “Do you remember what an arse I’ve been?” Nick ducked his head and brushed his thumb across Stephen’s palm.

“Yes,” Stephen said.

Before Nick could respond, Stephen’s other hand clamped around his throat and used the grip to slam him into the wall. “I also remember Helen telling me that you were dead.”

Everyone was yelling and the other soldiers rushed in, weapons at the ready, but Nick managed to hold up a hand to keep them back. His other hand grabbed at Stephen’s fingers.

“How did Helen say I died?” Nick choked out.

“She said you’d been shot.”

“I was shot, Stephen,” Nick said. “Helen shot me.”

In his surprise, Stephen loosened his grip just enough for Nick to get a breath. He tried to raise the hem of his shirt. Seeing what he was doing, Stephen helped. Stephen’s grip loosened further when he saw the bandage on Nick’s chest.

“You’re bleeding.”

“Bloody hell,” Nick said. “Must’ve pulled a stitch. No one tells Lester,” he warned the others.

“You do realize I’m listening to this entire exchange,” Lester said over comms.

Stephen released Nick and pulled down his shirt, smoothed it. “Helen did this.”

It was a statement, not a question, but Nick said, “Yes.”

“She thinks she’s doing the right thing,” Stephen said sadly.

“Yes.”

“Captain Becker, please bring Mr. Hart in for questioning,” Lester instructed.

Despite Nick’s protests, Stephen was handcuffed. Nick insisted on riding along, but he was made to sit in the front with Becker while Simonson sat in the back with Stephen. Nick kept turning around in his seat to look at Stephen, to assure himself that Stephen was really there.

“Stop it,” Stephen said. “You’re going to make your injury worse.”

Nick couldn’t deny that his chest did ache, but he didn’t think it was from the injury. And he didn’t stop turning around.

Nick shouldn’t have been surprised that Stephen was taken somewhere other than their temporary headquarters for questioning, but he was. He couldn’t deny Lester’s assertion that there was no sense giving Helen access to the Artifact again if Stephen was still working with her.

Stephen was scanned to make sure he didn’t have a bomb or a transmitter or a GPS tracker beneath his skin, and then he was put into an interrogation room. Nick refused to leave and was made to stand in the observation room. Nick forced them to give Stephen breaks, and to allow him food and drink, and once, when he saw that Stephen was nearing the end of his rope, he tapped their coded knock against the one-way window separating them. Stephen smiled at the table and straightened in his seat.

~*~*~*~

Nick knocked on the door frame to announce his presence. Stephen glanced over and smiled. “I wondered how long you were going to stand there staring at me,” he said, a blush rising on his cheeks.

Nick had quickly gotten used to the way Stephen’s skin flushed when he was around. He couldn’t help wonder how he’d missed it before, or if this Stephen just didn’t have the same practice at hiding his feelings from him. More surprising was the answering flush that heated the back of Nick’s neck whenever he saw Stephen’s skin pink up.

“I hope you brought more books,” Stephen said, in an obvious attempt to change the subject. “I’ve finished the others.”

“I’ve actually come with a proposition,” Nick said.

Stephen’s head came up fast and his eyes widened. Nick felt the heat spread to his own cheeks.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Stephen,” Nick said, and they both laughed, if a bit awkwardly.

“It’s just an idea,” Nick continued, “and if you’re not interested I won’t pursue it. It’s dangerous.”

Stephen dropped the pair of socks he’d been rolling and took a step towards Nick, his expression serious. “Well now I’m interested. What is it?”

~*~

Nick strode into the temporary lab as if he belonged there, and made his way to the area where Connor was working. “How’s it coming?”

Connor didn’t glance away from the item he was studying. “Slow,” he grunted.

“The device you found in Helen’s lab that opens anomalies . . .”

“You mean Open Sesame?”

“We’re not calling it that,” Nick said. “Have you figured out how it works?”

Something in his voice made Connor look up. He studied Nick’s face. “What have you got planned?”

Nick tried to look innocent, but behind him Abby said, “Is this about Stephen?”

Nick had his excuses all planned out, but instead of using them, he said, “Yes.” Hadn’t it always been about bloody Stephen? “I’ve got a proposal for Lester, but there’s a chance that it might go sideways.”

“And you’re going to break Stephen out and spirit him through an anomaly?” Abby guessed.

“I hope it won’t come to that,” Nick said.

“If it does, we’re coming with you,” Connor said with more loyalty than practicality.

“No,” Nick said, shaking his head. “You both have lives here, and you’re necessary to this project.”

“And you’re not?” Abby said.

“I think I can still be useful,” Nick said. “But not with Stephen locked up in the ARC.”

~*~

Nick was waiting in Lester’s office when he came in the next morning. Lester jumped when he turned on the light and saw Nick sitting there.

“How the bloody hell did you get in here, and why are you sitting in the dark?”

Nick asked the question he already knew the answer to. “Are you going to clear Stephen for field work?”

Lester raised an eyebrow. “You know I can’t do that.”

“Then I have a proposal for you.”

Lester hung up his coat. “Go on, then.”

“Helen wasn’t wrong about the future predators, despite how badly she went about it. We need intel, and Helen can’t be trusted to tell us the truth about what she’s discovered.”

“Agreed,” Lester said. “What’s your proposal?”

“A two-man team to explore the periods that Helen visited. Gather our own intel.”

“You’d need a full team for that kind of thing,” Lester said. “Someone with military experience for protection.”

Nick shook his head. “No. It’ll be easier to remain undetected if we keep the initial recon team small.”

“This two-man team, you and Stephen, I presume?”

Nick figured it was a rhetorical question, so he didn’t answer.

“And if I say ‘no’?”

Nick stared into Lester’s eyes so he’d realize just how serious he was. “Then the world finds out about the anomalies.” 

Nick had been against telling the public about the anomalies because he didn’t want to start a panic. He still was, in theory, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“I would remind you that you’ve signed the Official Secrets Act,” Lester said, just as casually. “Revealing the anomalies to the public would be tantamount to treason.”

“You can throw me in the same cell as Stephen, then.”

“Stephen’s not in a cell,” Lester said.

“So he’s free to leave?”

“You know he’s not. Cutter, we don’t even know if he really _is_ Stephen. And even if he is, as I recall, you’re the one who fired him in the first place. _Because_ of his collusion with Helen.”

“This proposal would kill two birds with one stone,” Nick said, ignoring the reminder. “Solve your Stephen problem and gather more intel. Which we desperately need.” He leaned forward. “We’re both dead as far as the rest of the world is concerned. We’re the perfect two to send.”

“I could just have you detained,” Lester said.

“You could,” Nick agreed. “But you’re smart enough to know that I wouldn’t have come to you without already having a plan in place.”

“This is blackmail,” Lester said, sounding more put out that Nick was raising a fuss than at the blackmail itself.

“I prefer to think of it as a negotiation,” Nick said.

~*~

“What did he say?” Stephen said when Nick stopped by his room after his meeting with Lester.

“Start packing,” Nick said in response.

Stephen grinned and flung his arms around Nick. Nick froze, and Stephen stepped back with an awkward, “Sorry, that . . .”

“No,” Nick said. “Come here.” He drew Stephen back in, and this time Nick put his arms around him and did what he’d wanted to do from the moment he’d seen Stephen in the barn.

“I’ve missed the hell out of you, Stephen,” Nick said. “Not just after . . . when I thought you were dead, but before, when we were . . . .”

“Estranged?” Stephen filled in when Nick hesitated.

Nick huffed a laugh that held little humor. “Yeah.” He drew back and looked at Stephen’s face until Stephen got embarrassed at the attention and ducked his head. Nick raised his hand to Stephen’s chin and gently lifted his head. He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Stephen’s lips. Stephen looked surprised, but not as surprised as Nick felt. “It doesn’t have to be like this,” Nick said. “I just . . .” _Couldn’t wait any longer._

Stephen pressed a finger to Nick’s lips. “It was always going to be like this, Cutter.”

This time Nick’s laugh held more humor than the previous attempt had, but it was cut off by the press of Stephen’s lips. Too soon they were interrupted by a very unsubtle cough at the door. When Nick turned, Connor looked embarrassed, but Abby was grinning widely.

“We heard that Lester approved your plan,” Abby said.

“Word travels fast,” Nick said.

“And we brought you a, uh, ‘good luck on your travels’ present,” Connor said when Abby nudged him. He handed an item wrapped in a towel to Nick. “Don’t unwrap it yet,” he said. “Wait ‘til you get where you’re going. The instructions on how to program it are in there.”

Nick’s eyes widened. “Connor.”

“You might need it,” Abby said.

“Thank you.” After blackmailing Lester into agreeing to his proposal, what was stealing one future artifact?

~*~

It had been like the old days when they’d planned a school-funded expedition together. They took only what they could carry because they’d need to move quickly; some food and water, plus additional water filter bottles, changes of clothes, a small tent and sleeping bags, flashlights, and, as Stephen had insisted, sunscreen and bug spray for Nick. They also would both be equipped with weapons, extra ammo, and a camera and a notebook so they could record their findings. The only unauthorized item was the device tucked at the bottom of Nick’s pack.

Only a small number of people knew about Nick or Stephen, and so it was a small group that was there to see them off. Lester pulled Nick aside before they stepped through the anomaly and said, “ _Is_ he a clone?”

Nick thought of Stephen’s now-unscarred palm and said, “He’s Stephen.”

They put on their tactical vests, checked their weapons, and shouldered their packs, and then both got hugs from Connor and Abby, a handshake from Captain Becker, and a frown from Lester. Together they turned to face the shimmering broken glass of the anomaly Connor had opened for them.

“Next stop, the future,” Stephen said.

Nick’s stomach flipped in excitement and anticipation. “To the future,” he said, and they stepped through together.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. It’s only SORT OF a fix-it fic because Stephen is a clone.
> 
> 2\. If you didn’t notice the twist with the trope, it’s that I was originally going to make Helen the devil in question because she just is, alright? I decided to make Nick the ‘devil’. Of sorts. *g*
> 
> 3\. Before I even started writing the story I had the last lines in mind. They were a bit different, but didn’t quite fit the story when I’d gotten it written:
> 
> “Where are we going?”  
> “To the future.”
> 
> Cookies if you know where I took that from. *g*


End file.
